What is Intellectual Property (IP)?
Brian Dougherty, COO of Rose-Hulman Ventures, posed that question to CEO students who visited the engineering consulting business. He shared that as an inventor or entrepreneur, you need to know the steps to owning your own invention, writing, artwork, trade secret and trademark. These steps can let you keep and protect what is yours.

Brian is Chief Operations Officer of Rose-Hulman Ventures which is separate from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, the engineering college in Terre Haute, though the two often work side-by-side.

Using actual patents, Brian pointed out what they are comprised of and stressed how important the "claims" of a patent are. "It's where the money is," he said, but they also need to be detailed and descriptive to an extreme. To avoid a crack that could lead to another new patent by a different business, he said.
Though a patent could be secured with a few hundred dollars, Brian shared that it is the cracks in the patent that could lead to someone working their way in. He advised that a patent attorney should be hired.

Brian also summarized copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets.

Of course, in this day of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the question arises, "Who owns the rights to what's generated by AI?" Brian shared at this time, the courts haven't decided. "Nobody knows," he said.
He advised to "be aware of what's going on and respond appropriately," he said. He views AI as a tool, like a calculator--it makes everything move much quicker, but do your work he advised.
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